Immunohistochemically demonstrated metallothionein expression in malignant melanoma

作者：Bernhard W. H. Zelger, A Hittmair, M. SCHIR, Clyde M. Ofner, Dietmar Öfner, Peter O Fritsch, W. Böcker, Bharat Jasani, K. W. Schmid · 发表于：Histopathology · 年份：1993 · DOI：10.1111/j.1365-2559.1993.tb01198.x · 被引用次数：100 · 研究领域：Trace Elements in Health、Cell Adhesion Molecules Research、Molecular Biology Techniques and Applications

Metallothioneins are ubiquitous proteins with a high affinity for heavy metal ions, e.g. zinc, copper and cadmium. Experimentally, metallothionein over-expression in cell lines derived from a variety of cancers has been associated with resistance to anticancer drugs and irradiation therapy. Using a monoclonal antibody (E9) to metallothionein we investigated immunoreactive expression in routinely fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue from 63 cases of malignant melanoma and 13 secondary deposits. Whereas a variety of cells in normal skin showed metallothionein expression, all forms of benign naevi studied were uniformly negative. In contrast 13/30 'thin' (< or = 1.5 mm; 0.7 +/- 0.4), 25/29 'thick' malignant melanoma (> 1.5 mm; 5.5 +/- 3.9) and 12/13 metastases were positive. Six patients with thin and 19 with thick melanoma with metallothionein expression died during a mean observation period of 6.4 +/- 1.8 and 3.6 +/- 2.5 years, respectively, their survival distribution function analyses giving statistically significant results for both the vertical tumour thickness (P < 0.0001) and metallothionein expression (P < 0.0001). These immunohistochemical results, based on routinely processed paraffin-embedded tissue, suggest that metallothionein expression in malignant melanoma is significantly associated with progressive disease and might therefore be a useful prognostic indicator.